Over the last 30 years maritime archaeology has changed from a rather narrow discipline, mostly focused on practical aspects of underwater exploring, to a field of study which is much more integrated in general archaeological, historical and humanistic research (Adams 2013, Adams & Rönnby 2013, Rönnby 2014). This book project aims to summarize this period of intensive research into shipwrecks and their contexts. Focused in northern Europe, the book integrates the analysis of a series of historically significant shipwrecks, providing the basis for an interpretive synthesis regarding society, innovation and change in a long term perspective over the period 1000-1900 AD. The project is a cooperation between professor Johan Rönnby, Södertörn University and professor Jon Adams, Southampton University. The two authors of the proposed study have been part of the development of the discipline since late 1970s and early 1980s, and are today senior professors with prominent international profiles, and are also Directors of their respective maritime archaeological research centers (MARIS ans CMS) Most of the examples and source material in the proposed study will be taken from the Baltic Sea, drawn from the authors’ personal experience in these waters and capitalizing on the Baltic’s outstanding conditions for the preservation of shipwrecks. However, the theoretical scope of the study, regarding the ambition to understand humans and society over the long term, is much broader